Customer Reviews

The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding

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In my view, this is one of the more important books written in the last couple of decades. In essence, it is a companion volume to Merlin Donald's Origin of the Modern Mind, which is another important book. Donald proposes an evolutionary theory of the origins of mind, starting with the primate mind and ending with the modern human mind. He proposes a series of stages---episodic, mimetic, mythological, theoretical---where the content and functions of mind gradually become free of the physical constraints of time and space. This evolutionary trend is partly biological, but is also partly cultural, with culture gaining increasing importance as evolution progresses to our current state. Kieran Egan builds on this framework by proposing a recapitulation theory of education and cognitive development. Essentially, he proposes that each human progresses through a series of stages---somatic, mythic, romantic, philosophic, ironic---that more or less recapitulate the progress of the species. Egan's theory can be seen as an elaboration of the work of Lev Vygotsky, the brilliant Soviet psychologist who began to create a socio-cultural theory of cognitive development, before his career was tragically cut short by TB. Although Egan's theory contradicts much of what I learned in graduate school, I think he is closer to the mark than anyone else when it comes to an educationally-usefull theory of cognitive development. Our nation's schools would be far better off if his ideas were taken seriously by the educational establishment. Egan is a sorely needed antidote to the intellectually impoverished "theories" that govern our schools today, especially in regards to what might be called the "tyranny of testing".

Egan's book challenges us to rethink our educational process in relation to his idea of multiple kinds of understandings.Education in the future must be seen as a sequence of these understandings in order for students to devlop specific intellectual tools. Through his studies you will explore cultual and linguistic history to learn more about our human brain. He provides theory, insight and concrete advice for educators today.